No Oil psi. Found something interesting. Please Help!

[SmittyFox5.0]

Well, was driving around about a month ago and lost oil pressure completely. I decided to pull the engine to root cause the failure and also inspect for further damage. I suspected the oil pump or shaft but these items had less than 500 miles on them. Well, got the engine out yesterday and inspected the oil pump and shaft. They both look perfect so I ruled them out of the equation. Then I found what appeared to be a half inch diameter freeze plug laying in the bottom of the oil pan. It looks as if something went through the center of it and punched it out of the hole it was plugging. It must have made some impact with other moving parts because it is rather mangled. Any ideas from anyone? Could this be the cause of my oil pressure issue. Other than that the bottom end looked decent and I couldn't find any other damage. Please Help!

 

[FORCED2DV8]

Are you missing one off the side of your block?? Maybe it got dropped in there during the assembly process..

 

[SmittyFox5.0]

If I was, wouldn't I be leaking coolant? No coolant leaks to speak of. Are the oil galley plugs like freeze plugs or are they like pipe plugs?

 

[stang8urimport]

There are a few oil plugs in the block, but if one came out, there'd be oil everywhere!

 

[Mike92GT]

There are a couple oil galley plugs behind the timing cover, and then there's one under the lower intake, at the very back. It is not uncommon for these to come out, especially with a high volume oil pump. Some builders get rid of the press in plug and thread the holes for a pipe plug

 

[SmittyFox5.0]

Would this cause my loss of oil pressure?

 

[stang8urimport]

Would this cause my loss of oil pressure?

Oil Galley plug comes out = NO oil pressure.

 

[Clienterror]

This sounds kinda basic but if you have an electric oil pressure unit have you checked the sending unit?

 

[86bluecobra]

yes that would cause your oil issues. when i bought my block it was assembled excepft for one of those plugs in the valley of the block. (351w have a oil gallery plug in the valley of the block that comes out for cleaning) i could make only 10 psi because as we know everything takes the path of least resistence. so if one came out behind your timing cover it would land in your oiil pan be mangled because of the timing chain and you would lose all oil psi because thats where the oil passes first.

 

[SmittyFox5.0]

Yeah I know it isn't the sender. I shut the engine down as soon as I lost pressure. Then I noticed that the lead on the sender was loose. I tightened it and fired it back up. After about 30 seconds I heard the lifters start to tick and I shut it down.

 

[86bluecobra]

pull the accesory's off it and the timing chain cover and have a look. while your in there swap the cam. no reason to take something apart and not add some more power.

 

[SmittyFox5.0]

No need to swap the cam if it isn't damaged. The engine has only about 500 miles since rebuild and Trickflow track heat kit install. I barely had time to enjoy it. I think I might replace all the bearings as there was a bit of wear.